study period, one-month study period, which ends with our five-day Nirahatsu Sesshin, which commemorates Buddha's enlightenment, traditionally December 8th. study period and sesshin all go together. This particular study period is a little bit different than the usual study period that we've had. Usually, our study period allows everyone to participate on

[01:14]

some level. This study period, we have a certain standard which limits the participation to people who have time to do it. So it's important to express our attitude, to understand what our attitude toward the study period is. The study period actually includes the whole Sangha. But those people who are able to participate according to the structure represent a certain part of the Sangha which strengthens or makes our practice for this month stronger.

[02:33]

So we should know why we do it. It's important to understand why we do what we're doing. If we are doing it just for ourselves, that's not a complete understanding. If we do the study period just to help ourselves, to do something for ourselves, that's a wrong understanding. And you might say, well, I'll do it for others, also not such a good understanding. If we do it for ourselves, just for ourselves, that's self-centered practice. And if we do it for someone else, that's just the other side of self-centered practice.

[03:46]

You might feel wonderful for somebody, but that understanding is not complete. So, we actually, if we just practice for practice, We just practice for the sake of practice. Then the benefit extends to ourself and extends to everyone else. But the distribution is taken care of by Buddha. The distribution of our effort is taken care of by Buddha. So we don't have to worry if it's for ourself or for others.

[04:54]

who benefits. So this is actually correct attitude in practice. We just practice for practice. So in this way, The whole Sangha benefits. Everyone's practice is strengthened. And for a guideline, I want us to use Dogen's Eight Aspects of Enlightenment. which we're fairly familiar with.

[05:59]

Eight awarenesses of enlightened practice. Eight aspects that we should be aware of to realize practice. Guidelines, not rules, but something that is underneath. background of practice. One is not having few desires. This is the whole basis of Buddhism. Desire is focus of Buddhist practice, how to deal with desire.

[07:06]

And every point in Buddhism can be focused, returned to this point. So, watching desire And the second one is how to be content with what we have. So of course these two go together. For this study period, what we study is what we have, focusing on what we already have. and leaning toward or focusing toward the lean side of our life.

[08:14]

We don't have to become austere. Our life during this period should be on the lean side. Focusing on just what we need to live easily. Not having something in excess. Keeping a close watch on our desire. Always making a note of what our desire is and how we respond to desire. keeping some restriction on yourself. Each one of us has some different problem in the realm of desire.

[09:22]

So we should be aware of what each individual problem is, or problems are, in the realm of desire. and use that as a place to step into practice. The third awareness is being able to enjoy tranquility and serenity. Those three, of course, are connected. Being content with what we have, of course, is how we enjoy serenity and tranquility.

[10:26]

But knowing what we actually have is much deeper than what appears on the surface. What do we actually have? What do we actually need? And the way enjoying tranquility and serenity is described as if we don't need too much, we can enjoy that our natural serenity, quieting our desire, settling our mind, not needing a lot of stimulus. So to be careful not to

[11:36]

and being careful to limit stimulus from outside. Dogen says about enjoying serenity and tranquility. If you seek joy and peace in the serenity and tranquility of non-being, you should keep away from disturbances and dwell alone in a quiet place.

[12:43]

This looks like it's saying we should stay away from be isolated. It looks like it's saying that, but actually the meaning for us is to keep some space around ourselves. To keep our balance. Keeping space around ourselves means to not lean on things. To dwell alone. has double meaning of being independent and also being at one with everything. So our effort here should be

[13:47]

to not lean on anything, or as little as possible to use crutches and supports, but learn to sit up independently, like we do in Zazen. And the fourth is exerting right effort or meticulous effort, good effort. He says, if you exert meticulous effort, nothing will be difficult to accomplish. Therefore, you should make an effort to practice carefully. For when water flows constantly against a big rock, even a small amount of water will eventually dig out a large hole. If one who practices becomes lax, it will be impossible to accomplish anything.

[14:56]

It's like trying to start a fire by rubbing two sticks together. If you stop rubbing before the wood gets hot, you can't start a fire. This is what is meant by meticulous effort or right effort. And the fifth is not forgetting right thought. Maintaining right thought. Which means not forgetting what you're doing. Not getting let off by something. And this is very important. To keep our attention focused on what we're doing. To not forget that we have study periods. After being in a study period for a week, it seems like the usual thing to us. And then we start wandering off. You have to remember yourself.

[16:01]

Because we practice together, it helps us remember. Why we practice together is because it helps us to remember what we're doing. And we support each other. But you have to remember yourself, what you're doing. After two weeks, you have to remember Number six is practicing samadhi, dwelling in the dharma undisturbed. When you unify your mind, the mind is in samadhi. Since the mind is in samadhi, you know the characteristics of the creation and destruction of the various phenomena in the world.

[17:08]

For this reason, you should constantly practice with diligence and cultivate all kinds of samadhi. When you gain samadhi, the mind is not scattered, just as those who protect themselves from floods guard the levee. This is also true for practice. For the sake of the water of wisdom, then, cultivate samadhi well and do not let it leak out. When we cultivate samadhi, we don't think about samadhi as an object. Our unification of purpose and bringing our mind together, the elements of mind together to focus on practice is samadhi itself. And the less we leak, the less our energy leaks out,

[18:15]

from that unification, the stronger our samadhi is, the stronger our concentration. Samadhi is quality of concentration, quality of concentrated activity. So effort and right thought and samadhi all go together. They're all really qualities of one effort The seventh is cultivating wisdom. Buddha says, when you have wisdom, you are without greed. So this comes right back to the first one. Each one of these eight aspects contain the others. So there are actually 64 aspects. But each one is the basis for the other eight.

[19:23]

Whatever you're concentrating on, or whatever you choose to focus on, is containing all the others. You are without greed. Always reflect upon yourself. Do not lose this wisdom. In this way, you can best attain liberation in my dharma. And the eighth, avoiding idle talk. Having realization and being free from discrimination is what is called avoiding idle talk. To totally know the true form of all things is the same as being without idle talk. Not to express dualistic delusion in idle talk.

[20:33]

It doesn't mean that we shouldn't have small talk. Actually, the profound meaning of dharma is in small talk. We should watch our tongue and not just run off at the mouth and express everything that comes into our head. It's good to think about what we say before we say it. So these are eight aspects. I'll print something out and hand it out so that we can really study them. It's not something that you have to study intellectually.

[21:47]

It's not difficult. We should memorize the eight. And each day we can use one as a focus It's good to use one as a focus every day. And it helps us to think about the other eight. And this way we can be careful about our inner activity. Do you have any questions?

[22:56]

Yeah. Could you just say them again? I've already forgotten. Well, first one is... having a few desires. And the second one is to be content with what we already have. And the third is to enjoy serenity and tranquility. The fourth is to exert meticulous effort or fight effort. Fifth is to have right thought or keep our attention focused on practice.

[24:21]

And the fifth is to cultivate samadhi. No leakage of concentration. And seventh is to cultivate wisdom. And eighth is no idle talk. Not to leak that way. Not to leak our samadhi or wisdom through idle talk. We should communicate and talk. You should be careful. You're such a fine line in some of these situations. For instance, keeping space around yourself and separating yourself.

[25:28]

Keeping space means to be completely independent. But at the same time, we're dependent on everything. At the same time, we're dependent on everything. So, it doesn't mean to withhold yourself, but you should think about it. What does it mean? I don't want to explain everything. Can you explain just a little bit that small talk is a sound expression of darkness? It's what? You said earlier when you were talking about idle talk that it didn't mean no small talk.

[26:34]

No, that doesn't mean that. I see what you mean. Our everyday speech, you know. Dharma should be expressed through our everyday speech. So we have to be careful of our everyday speech. Just ordinary everyday speech. Through that everyday speech, the Dharma is expressed. So we should be careful about our everyday speech. How we actually use it. It's like, you know, it's not like Dharma is special and everyday activity is something else. It's one thing. So it's one thing to express Dharma in lofty terms, but to actualize that in our everyday speech and action is really the culmination of practice.

[28:01]

So everything we do expresses our understanding and our practice. So we should be very careful. There's no realm of our activity that's left out. So there's no place to hide. No place that we can I feel that we're out of it. Everything is revealed. So this is... I feel already very good about what we're doing.

[29:08]

The interface between talking sincerely about something and leaking something, leaking samadhi. You know, a person, I think, or at least I always feel it after the fact. You know, after I've said too much or revealed too much. It's very subtle. A person wants to speak. sincerely or share themselves some complete way and yet after doing so you find in the most simple and flamboyant way that they use your self-revelation as some leverage on you. So at some point, maybe not now or maybe now, I'd like to talk about it or explore it.

[30:20]

I would like to know more. That's an important point. We won't talk about it now. Okay. This is impossible. Would you say a word about the place of Sesshin and whose practice? Sesshin is, you can say, gathering the mind, or embracing mind is one good expression. Literally, embracing mind. And because it's such a long period, just the activity itself forces us to practice completely without leaps, and to arouse our samadhi.

[31:31]

All the eight aspects are right there in seshin. But we put ourselves in a position to be on the spot. We commit ourselves to actualizing that kind of realization during sashimi. It's really an easy way. It looks difficult, and it is difficult, but it's an easy way because it really We put ourselves under restriction, which is almost impossible to do when we're moving around or by ourselves. Could you say a little about how those who might not find that they have the time to participate fully in this?

[33:05]

How they might lend to it or participate. I'll hand out the eight aspects to everyone. And you can practice that way, the same way. under the limitation that you have. People in the study period have put a more focused limitation on their activities. I encourage people who are not in the study period to participate as much as possible and become part of that. So, you know, every time we have fuzzing, there'd be a strong core of people sitting, and it would just help everybody. Without thinking, we're helping everybody.

[34:13]

It seems to me that if you call something a study period, you could do the same thing without calling it anything at all. You can decide to sit three times a day, for a month, or for the rest of your life, and not call it study period. And it seems to be an important distinction, because you can do it and not do it, and you don't have to call it anything, if you're motivated to do it. How do you get motivated to do it? Well, it's like, if you want to learn something, you don't necessarily have to go to a class, And sometimes a class is a way of organizing, focusing your attention. And that's good, I guess. But it also could be, I know lots of people who take classes because they feel not self-motivated. They want a structure, a structure outside themselves to force their activity into. And it seems to me that's an important distinction.

[35:20]

It's interesting because, like, in a way, some people, like myself, sit a lot anyway. It's, like, not that different than I'm going to a class. So study period, in a way, doesn't seem that different. But calling it a study period, to me, it intensifies it. If you do it in some kind of a form, just to say, this is what we're doing, and we're all doing it together. When some people are doing it together, it kind of unifies it. That's more helpful. Even though it's in some way not that different. It isn't different, is it? In a way, it is. It's different if you're aware of doing it with other people. Yeah, quite cooperative.

[36:27]

Well, we always do when I'm thinking of things. You want to share the intention of sitting on a special kind of schedule. It's not the same thing to sit in your bedroom all day long as it is to come to sessions. Well, that's clearly a share of energy. But there would be a share of energy in anything. Sarah, what... You say it's an important distinction, but I don't see what distinction you're making. Well, the distinction I'm making, the first time we had a study period here, a long time ago at this point, what was called a study period was what I had been doing for a very, very long time, and I didn't call it anything. So what? So, it seems to me that some people feel more comfortable if you call it something. And that's the problem I have about calling it something. You either decide to do it without calling it anything at all.

[37:32]

You don't have as much power and meaning to anything. That's the difference in... in terms of defining the direction it's going. I think in general naming something gives you more clarity and focus on it. That's what I'm talking about. It's calling something something. The phenomena of giving a label to an activity as opposed to just doing an activity. Like when you throw a light on something and you give it a name. What you're saying is that some people need to have that calling when some people don't.

[38:37]

That's right. And so that's why I think there is this situation where you call something because some people need that. Yeah. It's true. Which makes me think about what happens after this is over. When we stop calling it something, that we just stop being aware and stop. We can't get you together. I don't know. Do you need to get me to talk to you? I'm sorry, yes. I can't get it done with one super all. I don't know if Sarah's question is good. We've got a point. I'm not sure what one has to say. So, you know, we go along in a daily way, but our energy gets very scattered.

[39:43]

So, in order to bring everything together, bring our energy together and support each other, and make a focus towards seshin, So that by the time the Shin comes, we're all really focused. That's really the purpose. If we could just go along in our usual way, that we make some effort, special effort, to unify our practice. bringing things together. For the sake of practice itself.

[40:45]

I'd like to say something in relation to the first, that it's the same distribution between It's an important use of the word discrimination. Knowing how to... using discrimination, actually. We can go on. clear something up.

[41:35]

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