Good morning. Welcome. I want to speak this morning about balance in our practice, and balancing three aspects of our practice. We could call them, first, deep settling. then deep awareness, and then responsible everyday activity in the world. Of course, these three are not really separate at all, but we could see these as three aspects of our practice. And in some sense, it's my job as the teacher here to help us collectively and each of us, each of you individually, as I engage with you to see imbalances and to help balance those aspects.

[01:15]

But also, talking about this today, each of us can see, can be reminded when we're kind of focusing on one, and maybe that's okay at times, but then to remember the other two aspects. Even though, as I say, actually they're not really separate, but we can see them that way. So again, deep settling, deep awareness, and responsible everyday activity. And I'm gonna start with the third. Actually, they're all aspects of Zazen. Zazen includes all three of them, this practice we've been doing. But in this tradition of Soto Zen that we have received from the 13th century Japanese founder, Ehei Dogen, and from Suzuki Roshi who brought this to

[02:20]

San Francisco in the 60s, we emphasize quite a lot this third aspect. And it's very important to emphasize this third aspect, which I'm calling today responsible everyday activity. This has to do with bodhisattva practice. And we talk about this a lot. How does this practice express itself in our everyday life and world? So the Bodhisattva is dedicated to universal liberation, not just personal liberation. Of course, this practice does support each of us in our practice. It does foster individual transformation in some ways, but it's really not solely about self-help. It's not just about developing ourselves, but actually it's about seeing that ourselves aren't at all separate from others.

[03:25]

So we talk about seeing the way that we are connected with everybody around us, everybody in our life, and then how there are particular practices. to actually engage in, in our everyday activity, to help that. So, Bodhisattva precepts or ethical guidelines to benefit all beings, to embrace and sustain right conduct, for example, and to not harm, not kill, but to support life. We have a set of 16 precepts that some people take on formally, but that are part of our expressions of Zazen in the world, to not intoxicate mind or body itself or others, to support awareness rather than intoxication in our life. to not take what is not given, but to be generous, to not misuse sexuality, to engage respectfully in sexuality, to not speak of faults of others, but to speak of shortcomings of ourselves and others respectfully.

[04:43]

So anyway, there are 16 of these precepts. And then there are also bodhisattva practices of generosity and ethical conduct and patience. Very, very important. Not as a passive practice, but as an attentive practice. How do we develop our capacity and tolerance for facing the difficulties, for just sitting uprightly and paying attention in the middle of the difficulties of our life? All of these are active practices in the world, the world on our own cushion, our chair, but also with all the people we engage with during the week, family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, and with the larger world. So these bodhisattva practices, continuing effort, meditation, wisdom, commitment or vow, skillful means,

[05:44]

using our abilities and talents, using our knowledge and the practice of wisdom or insight. All of these are active practices to use in the world, to use in our everyday activity. So these are all part of this third aspect I'm talking about this morning, everyday activity. How do we conduct ourselves in our lives? How do we express our awareness. And again, this has to do with how do we take care of ourselves, support ourselves, and all the complexity of all the beings on your cushion or chair right now. Respectfully. And also the beings that you know, and also that you engage with, and also in our world, in the difficulties of our world. How do we respond to the difficulties of our world? including the problems of our society.

[06:51]

Just for example, the difficulties. This is February, I think, the beginning of February. It's lovely that we have this winter wonderland outside. This is appropriate for Chicago climate. It's been very cold the last few days. And yet last Tuesday it was up to 60. Our climate is kind of going haywire and we understand that climate is changing and this has to do with causes and conditions that relate to all of us that we all are involved with and that also have to do with conditions of our society and how it's organized. So there's information out front about a Chicago climate change conference happening Saturday, February 16th that you may want to participate in. I'm not going to be here in two weeks.

[07:56]

I'm going to be in Washington, D.C. as part of a climate damage demonstration to try and bring attention to the politicians in Washington, to the difficulties of what's going on Anyway, that's just one example of how do we respond to the difficulties of our world and our society, and there's so many different issues. This is all part of this third aspect of responding to responsible everyday activity, responding to everything around us. This is the third aspect of our practice. And it's important to be aware of that as the context for the first two, because it's possible to focus too much on the first two. So we talk about precepts and we talk about Bodhisattva understanding and the understanding of interconnectedness.

[09:03]

And we talk about this a lot, and we will at the end of this and all of our events, we'll chant the four bodhisattva vows. Beings are numberless, we've got to free them. So to see this, to see what we do, in some sense alone, sitting on our Kushner chair, breathing and enjoying our breath and being upright, and thoughts come and go, and we may be caught up in all the stuff of, you know, that's important to us this week. or we may be sleepy, or whatever's going on. It's related to how we act in the world on all those different levels. That's the third aspect of the three I want to talk about this morning that we try to balance in our practice. Going back to the first one, deep settling, sometimes called samadhi. So we sit, Still, if we can, and upright.

[10:07]

Inhaling and exhaling. And there are many different approaches to this within Buddhism and within Zen, but really the point is just to settle deeply into being the person you are on your Kushina chair. To be present, to be upright, pay attention to find some calm, some stability, some presence. So in this tradition that we follow here, we talk about just hitting. And in some sense, it's impossible to do this incorrectly. It's not about are you doing it right or wrong. But in some branches of Buddhism and some branches of Zen, they are much stricter about how you do this.

[11:16]

Don't move or focus on particular objects of meditation. And I regularly offer those particular focuses as a way of focusing. So there's different aspects of this first aspect of deep settling. So it's complex. I want to talk about it a little more. The starting point is just to stop and settle and focus. Settle on your cushion. We focus on posture. And as part of posture, Feel the space at the end of the exhale, but enjoy your inhale. Enjoy your exhale. And if you want, you can count breaths. Count one at the end of the exhale and two at the end of the next exhale and so forth to 10 and start over.

[12:22]

Or you can lose, you know, if you lose count, just start at one again. Or you can focus on sounds. Sound is pretty subtle. Jeremy left the door slightly ajar. But even so, we can't really hear much traffic out there. If you focus on sound as you're sitting, there's a kind of settling that's possible. We can hear the quality of sound deeper than the particular sounds.

[13:24]

So that's another good one, if you want something to help settle. is arising. So thoughts also come and go, and don't try and stop them, but don't try and do anything with them. So this settling, there are many other concentration objects to help you settle. So when people first come to this practice, we suggest those if you want. And when people have been practicing for 10 or 20 or 30 years, also please use these when you need them. You can focus on a mantra, you can focus on a phrase from the teaching. the things we chant. But ultimately, the point is just to be present, to be upright in the middle of the body and mind on your cushion or chair, here this morning. How does it feel on your cushion or chair?

[14:27]

So this focusing and settling is very important, and it does promote a kind of calm, a kind of settling and stability, and that supports your being able to be present for the third aspect that I talked about first, of being responsible in your everyday activity. We are more settled when we respond to the difficulties in our life. difficult people around us, difficult situations in the world, difficulties in our own hearts and minds, in our own patterns of grasping and frustration and confusion. So these three are not separate, as I said, but we can get caught in one or the other and get attached to one or the other and forget the other two. So in this deep settling, Again, please use these focusing tools when you need them.

[15:47]

And really it's up to you. We're here to make Zazen available and to help when you're confused about Zazen or if you have questions about it. to be experienced guides, but you have to, so talking about these three aspects this morning, I'm offering you guidance to how to guide yourself in some ways, but also you should check. You should check with yourself and you should check with someone with more experience. Am I getting caught up in one or the other? We do get off balance. Sitting together with others, we can feel some attunement. But sometimes we lean forward into our experience. Sometimes we hold back. Sometimes we slide one way or the other. It happens. We're alive.

[16:49]

The practice is alive. So again, still on this first aspect of deep settling, There's the focusing side of settling, and then there's this other side, which we start out with, in a way, which is wider, kind of panoramic awareness. Whatever comes up, just allow the spaciousness of that to be present, and you can settle into that, too. So this first side, technically it's called samadhi, this deep settling, has a whole wide field to explore. Each of these three are deep studies and each of these three are not separate. So the second one I was calling deep awareness, sometimes it's called insight or even wisdom. This naturally arises out of the first.

[17:52]

As we settle the very first time you do this zazen practice, but I recommend doing this practice of zazen, stopping and sitting and facing yourself and just being upright in the middle of whatever arises. Thoughts, feelings, frustrations, sounds, breath, all of it. Letting yourself be present and upright in the middle of it. As you do that, this other, this second aspect, becomes available. So this deeper awareness, this insight, isn't something that you figure out. I mean, there are books and treatises about it. But you aren't actually going to get it from reading the books and treatises. The books and treatises will help you Maybe though.

[19:00]

So this deeper awareness or this wider awareness, or sometimes it's called awakening, is available. It's not something that you have to get. It's not something that'll happen in the future. It's always available. It's part of this... It sort of comes together with this deep settling. It doesn't come as a result of some calculation or deliberation. It's, oh yeah, what's important now? What's going on? And it's kind of related to your breathing. It's not separate from the intellect, but it's also not about the intellect.

[20:12]

It's something, it's more physical than that. So, it's hard to talk about all three of these. Anything I say isn't quite exactly it. But especially in the second one. And yet again, The balancing of these three is what I'm trying to talk about this morning. So again, this deeper awareness supports then, it rises out of the deep settling and supports it as we feel this wider sense of the reality. of the world in our life, then that helps us to settle. And it also helps us to have a capacity to respond in our everyday world.

[21:15]

And this, again, not that you have to figure out how to respond to some problem or situation in your life, although thinking about it might be part of it. You know, we say to sit with some problem. So if you're having difficulty in some relationship or difficulty with some coworker or difficulty with figuring out some life issue, uh, it's not that you shouldn't think about it, you know, cause you're going to anyway. So, okay. But also to sit with it. And that's not necessarily going to solve it, but can you then have a wider sense of What it means in the wholeness of your life and the wholeness of the world. What will be the difference 200 years from now?

[22:16]

How will it affect somebody else you care about. You have a wider range for thinking about or for feeling how to take care of some question. And again, it's not that it will fix everything. It won't. So part of this is basic Buddhist teaching, the Four Noble Truths, the first one being that there is always some problem. Sometimes it's read, it's translated as that there's, the nature of reality is that there's some suffering. Sometimes it's really miserable, difficult, heart-rending suffering. Sometimes it's just some sense of, you know, slight nagging frustration. There's a whole range there. The second truth is that there's some cause of that.

[23:25]

Nothing is random. It's not necessarily that we caused it. Some people think that's what that means. But there's lots of causes and conditions in the world and partly through the things we've done, but it may not have nothing to do with anything we did. Sometimes something just happens and it's not our fault. It's just the way the world is. But there's also some way of not being caught up in that, of dealing with it. And there are ways towards that, and that has to do with the practices of the Bodhisattva, the practices of awareness. So I could keep babbling, but maybe there's not so much more that I want to say, and I want to hear your responses and questions.

[24:37]

Again, the point I want to make this morning is that there's this balancing that we need to do in our practice from these three aspects. It's possible to get caught up in just how important it is to settle and be calm. It's possible to get caught up in Oh, I have to take care of everything in the world and forget about the calm side or the awareness side. It's possible to get caught up in, oh, I've got to get awakening or get enlightened or have some insight and forget about the other two. So the balance is important. And partly I'm talking about this in terms of our upcoming practice period that will start later next month, in which we're going to be focusing on the samadhi of satsanas in this practice, but in some sense focusing on samadhi, this first deepening, settling practice. aspect of practice.

[25:39]

The last two years we focused more on the everyday activity part. We focused on the precepts two years ago and the bodhisattva practices last year. So I don't want you to forget that when we start focusing on the settling part. And again, they're all deeply interconnected and they're all aspects of our satsang practice. So each one I could talk about a lot more, but I'll stop now and ask for comments, questions, responses, please. Feel free. Margaret, hi. For people who are new like me, could you talk a little bit about what the practice period is? Oh, yeah. We'll be starting. I'm going to talk about that in the announcements. eight-week practice period starting late March. There are information sheets out front, so you're welcome to take those.

[26:46]

There's also commitment sheets. You don't have to decide whether or not to sign up for a while. Basically, we're practicing as a lay temple in the middle of the city. So this third aspect is very important in terms of we're not doing monastic practice. So it means each of you, each person who participates, committing to a particular schedule of meditation and of activities in the temple during that period, a kind of more intensive personal schedule. But also, those of you who are not going to be formally participating in that will also be hearing about the text that we're focusing on, a particular text, Song of the Precious Mara Samadhi. There are copies of the text available out front and in the back also. So we'll be focusing on that.

[27:47]

And actually I'll be talking about that text starting to go through it line by line tomorrow evening. So we're going to be kind of starting on it before the actual practice commitment period starts. Thank you. Are there questions about any of these three or combination of them. The Sanskrit names for them just, as I said, Samadhi, and the second one is Prajna, and the third one, which I call Responsible Everyday Activity, is sometimes called Shila, or Ethical Conduct. You don't have to remember those funny foreign words. thinking about how you had mentioned how the Dalit people in India had just sort of dropped them.

[29:11]

So thank you for giving another way to look at it. Yeah, one of the issues for us, again, you know, here we are in Chicago, a storefront temple, a lay sangha, which this is how I want to teach. I like working with people who are out in the world, doing stuff in the world, and we have this really cool sangha of people who are doing all kinds of interesting, constructive things in the world. And zazen is important, particularly in this context. I've practiced in monasteries, too, and that has its value. But yet, the wonderful Buddhist tradition and the wonderful Sota Zen tradition, how do we express that in this context?

[30:35]

And it's a living tradition, so we have to find a way. I'm a translator. of Chinese and Japanese texts, but also how do we translate this into what makes sense for us in our lives, in our world? And that's something that, in some sense, we each have to do. How do we find what makes sense and what works and what enlivens the tradition for each of us? So that's something we do together. So this tradition goes back 2,500 years, and yet I think it's very relevant and very meaningful here in the, what is it, 2013, in the Midwest, in the North American continent. your description of these as aspects of one thing, because it strikes me just how much each of these is really a part of and dependent on the other two.

[31:46]

If I'm out stealing and lying and misusing sexuality, the chances of me being able to sit and have a deep presence and just be there in my sitting is not real good. And it seems like if there's an issue in any one of those, it's going to show up in the other three. So we really have to, all three arise together. And so I think the fact that we're all sitting here shows that. Yeah, each of us has that in some sense, but we're all also all working on it. We don't get, we don't have some perfect, you know, we're not, this is all an ongoing process. We live in this world that is, you know, it's a real world, it's a world of, where there's difficulties and how do we,

[32:54]

find our way in it. So it's not about that we're all doing it all perfectly. It's that these are in process. So we're all in some relationship to all three aspects of these. Yeah. Laurel. So I don't have this completely thought through, but it's so interesting that you brought up this balance yesterday. because I think of it as partly helping me to think about integrating my practice into my everyday life. So it's not just here or when I'm on a cushion, but it's permeates everything. And yesterday I was at a conference with 1300 people who are mostly volunteers who are involved in ecological restoration and stewardship. And all of the sessions were about snakes and bees and, you know, plants and so forth. And then the last session I went to was on the ethics of conservation.

[34:01]

And he was from a Christian tradition, a philosophy professor at North Park University. And the three people he quoted were Thoreau, Joanna Macy, and Gary Snyder, which is very interesting. And he talked about the goodness of the work that people, he used the word good a lot as a sort of a value about environmental conservation. And it was a very shocking thing for a lot of the people in the room who had thought of it as political or something not related to their I mean, not that it wasn't related to their values, because they put a lot into it and valued it, but it was very, I think, a little surprising for people to have that conversation in that context. So I hope that's the beginning of a long conversation.

[35:05]

But anyway, thank you. Yeah, I appreciate you bringing that up, because some of you know, I've been here before, some of you who are fairly new may not, but I talk about social issues a fair amount. Not always, but I try and do it always from the perspective of values. And that's how I would put it, or morality maybe. That all three of these actually implies certain kind of values. And, you know, all of those are, you know, they're not set in stone, they're questions, they're things to look at. But yeah, how we so-called political decisions have value implications and how we take care of our everyday activity and how we settle and what comes forth in terms of our deeper awareness have implications in terms of values and they're not always very clear.

[36:13]

Sometimes there are questions, but I think that's how I see those issues myself. So I appreciate you bringing that up. Other questions or comments or reflections, responses? Yes, again. If I may, I'd like to follow up on the environmental issue. Something that actually troubles me personally. It has to do with the precepts also. Because one of the precepts is not to kill. Even organic gardening involves killing things. And so, that's always been a commitment. Could I say something? Laurel, please. I just read this wonderful essay by Gary Snyder, and he talked about an awakening he had about that, and he said that the earth is a place that is all one, and we eat each other.

[37:25]

That's just the way it worked. Tigers eat whatever they eat. Mammals and other things. We eat plants. It was so beautiful the way he said it. It was shocking for him to say, to have that thought. But I can't get the sentence out of my head. And we eat each other. But he meant it as not neutral, actually good. It's how it all fits together. But I do think there are better and worse ways. It certainly was real. That's certainly real. That's certainly the case. It wouldn't work if we didn't eat each other. So the energy moves around the system. Anyway. Just to follow up on that, a book that I love on this topic is Prodigal Summer, which was written as a novel, but it very much... Prodigal Summer. What's her name?

[38:28]

It's been a while since I've read it, but I love her books. But she describes that, you know, the hierarchy and that we'd be... It is the way the system works. It's the way the whole... She's talking about it. Takes it in a force, but then expands it beyond that. Yeah, but energy couldn't move around. The plants get it from the sun and spread it around the rest of the world. sort of work with that, feel badly about it, you know, but not so much.

[39:30]

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