The Zen of Going to the Restroom

00:00
00:00
Audio loading...

Welcome! You can log in or create an account to save favorites, edit keywords, transcripts, and more.

Auto-Generated Transcript

yeah
ah that day so
the to
the

thank you very much i almost made it
i'm almost there
they have a good old eighty eight
oh
it's it's not like different because i'm still eighty seven
so i'll let you know it's like to be idiot few days
i'm
some thanks for that route rising sun
i don't really like it
ah i've been trained not to be discriminating
and to am ah except with offered
so where was i before all that happened
for those of you who who know me
my knee is actually a lot better
but am i being a little cautious about i'm sitting on the cushion so that's why i'm sitting in the chair
ah that's an interesting situation you know because i was gonna proud of myself for sitting ah and the cushion
so it is good to be little humbled by sitting in a chair and am
actually i haven't really sat in a chair before fifty three years but is that doesn't mean haven't had any problems before
but i always kind of barrel through them and that barrels through this one
but i'm ready get ready to sit on the cushion
so i have a lot of empathy for people who have physical problems
i'm and some of our most ah
admirable are examples of practice are people who have serious physical problems and ha ah i identify with that
so
ah
those people to mere the most inspiring
ah
the sam
it's like a just not giving up you know
i'm finding a way to keep practicing no matter what you're up a disposition is
and to me that that's what i practice is about because as we grow and change which we don't go the time our bodies change our psyches change our circumstances change in
and through all the changes the one thing that stays constant is the practice
to me that's the meaning of practice
the one thing that doesn't change his heart our aspiration for practice
ah and then we can understand and experience whatever is happening with her but in her mind and our disposition
ha
but we have a any have a ground
ha that is always am
a constant and ah but we really live
it's called zero
what's called many things but
i'm
so i'm
i never thought to myself is getting old
until i reached eighty seven and nine nineteenth
or ten twelfth
so i have to admit that that's happening finally
blame it all i'm suzie
so that but that's not what i wanted to talk about today and we parted me wanted to talk about that today but you know there's so many things to talk about
letters were old and stale but ah still have to decide so i decided a few minutes ago
what i will talk about and
i'm gonna talk about them
how we let go
i'm
ah how he let go over living in how we let go when where and so-called dying
so ah
the suzuki roshi has a nice little talk about it which am
i've talked about this before
i'm gonna use him as a reference
this thing is going to be troublesome for partner to thank
anyway
it it's okay you know everything is compensation
our whole life is built on compensation because nothing is there is something to standing in our way all the time something is standing away something is changing something is made more difficult
ah and ah conversation is what we're doing all the time
so one time i had an eye operation i'll tell you put this operation it was called a day
yeah
i love the cold call them macular hole not macular degenerate degeneration there are two different things macular degeneration with your eye
a i either i something detaches from the macular but this is the whole little teeny whole
and the then discovered a way to deal with that and we do with it was to put am
i'll take all the fluid out of your eye and put a gas bubble in your eye
and then you hold your head done like this war two weeks to ten days

some years ago i did that and it wasn't so hard for me because i'm just sitting still would my know who my head down but you know doesn't really helped
ah and then
when it was over
i'm what it was it
the whole in the magnet as it makes straight lines collect this kirby
ah but
after that it still have their some communists but your i your eyes adjust to it and make everything straight seam straight
so that's compensation your eyes are compensating for the distortion it but you what you see it straight
so
and i said to the the doctor
something about that he says it's all compensation
and that's decker may motor that the were just compensating for all the time for the forwards in front of us that's an obstacle
so here's my talk

you know we're creatures of habit
ah we're creatures of the attachment
and am
i want to look at my note a minute
and we're creatures of addiction
those three are related
habit is how we operate we learn at various habits and if we didn't read have to decide how to live life on each moment ah
ah without any background
which is not a bad idea but we can't really do it so we create habits and it's just natural for us to create habits good habits bad habits and so forth
good habits are coming doesn't everybody
or bernabeu bad habits are taking to open and being addicted to being happy
we are addicts
we're all addicts somewhat some other addictions are really harmful
but we don't really realize how addicted we are to everything
but ah

the more complex our society becomes the more addicted we become to things that are offered to us
so we really are
i'm killing ourselves you know with are offering things to each other that will create addictions and then we don't we put grove and driven by the addictions
if you think about what it is that your
ah ah
motivated by
that you don't want to not be motivated by and when you try to not be motivated by them you realize how caught you by them
so
i am
the purpose of out
i thought about this a few days a little while ago about yes buddhism is about learning how not to be addicted
that's what it's really about because
ah if you look at what buddha said
apparently suffering is the am
ah than in the nature of human beings to suffer or to be a deceased
and the the causes addiction
we say
delusion
we also say an ah
ah desire
those things are part of it but addiction is a result
so let me think about not the separate is caused from outside but the every is caused by inside
it's due to our addictions
what we are caught by
so we have all her little hooks out
were fishermen without a little hooks out and then oh that's nice
oh whatever we have also has us
so
i'm holding up this piece of paper but this piece of paper also has me
because it's telling me what to do
an olympic is that it's got a certain shape and a sculpture kind of writing on it but it really nice actually
come
and so in order for me to handle this i have to pay attention to what is telling me for everything is telling me something
if i do something that is
ah delightful that i wanna do it again
and he can't repeat anything so let's big problem we can't repeat anything
so what do we do
that's my introduction to suzuki roshi stock
which is that titled
an title the zen of going to the restroom
you're having an apprentice the pupa dennis
so is this how do you you're right now
and then he says
he laughs and he says i don't know how you feel but i feel like i've just come out of the restroom
i'm lenny touch about when he was younger you know when i was younger i went to the restroom were offered than others
advantage because it had
cause you when he went to a hedge monastery
it's a him that a japan and set tank area which is to go you with a period where when you enter the monastery you just said and ah
for anywhere from three or four days to a week
oh without can him or anything like that you eat your meals there
but it's a constant city that's the entrance exam
oh so i said so on to when i went to the monastery and set tank oreo
i could go to the restroom without a guilty conscience
often people go because to take a break you know whether they have to go or not
arms up and then they have a guilty conscience i was so happy to go to the restaurant
i think that i'm going to the restaurant is a good way to look at our practice
so
ah

one of the you know everything has two sides in this particular culture
this is a culture of accumulation
ah
so in a culture of accumulation
we get a stopped up
it's so this is a metaphor of course for iran mine gets stopped up with conflicting desires
ah how do we take care of that ah we have a lot of a big problems because of the confusion of conflicting desires

so master man
i'm in the tang dynasty
him a been may have been the first person
yeah to earn and to make a connection between our practice and the restroom
he said
somebody asked him what is your practice
what is what is buddha
someone asked him and he answered
a shit stick
mississippi was just toilet paper because he very polite but as actually there's no toilet paper that shit stick
something to wipe yourself with a a stick of some kind after you go to the bathroom
so actually nowadays as toilet paper but he said something to wipe yourself with in a restaurant that the stick is important because they shall see
that is what he said and since then many zen masters have been thinking about this and practicing with his on
how can boot up in shit stick that's blasphemy
but not and then
so what is that what did he mean by that
my note here i says he used to that he used the stick to prop open the door
ah
a prop open the gate or the door
so are put it takes many forms
and this is one of them
yeah he uses it
to open the gate so
what happens when we opened the gate
when we open the gate
we find her freedom
so freedom has different to different at least two different meanings one is to do what you want that's one meaning
and the other is to be free of everything
that's our meeting that to do what you want but to be free of everything
so this is why he says i had you feel i feel like it just came out to the restroom free of everything
no burdens nothing there
oh and i'm sure you have felt like that and your lives somewhere
maybe today
ah so he says it our everyday life we many things good and bad fancy and simple tasty and not so tasty and later we need to go to the restroom similarly after filling our mind we practice at him
otherwise are thinking will eventually become very unhealthy
don't you think so
i think it becomes really unhealthy
it is necessary for us to make our mind clear before we study something it's like drawing something on a piece of white paper if you don't use clean white paper he can't draw what you want so it's necessary to go back to your original state or you have nothing to see and nothing
to think about
then you will understand what you're doing
so that's why we say you know you must like aware of everything before i before you can practice truly this is why in a monastery we have to goryeo
tango area of squeezes everything
so you enter the monastery as a newborn person wouldn't nothing
you have nothing
someone gave me a year
a book ah
a hamburg your hammock
ah when she was here and this book about this woman who was brought up in the south specific and at all
polka polka is the name her at all
i'm just a little dot in the middle of the ocean and a ah their life or so simple
before
well captain cook came there
and so ah it's one of the cook islands
but the people
that's such a simple life just supporting themselves with with the ocean and the coconuts and ah
telling stories and singing songs and dancing that was a lie
and not too long ago
ah cause the or came along and ruined the south pacific islands totally
but before then it was quite simple and i'm ever heard
detailing once a year a passenger ship would come by and a
ah the tourists would come off
and look around the island and they would laugh at them
because of their a unusual funny pastures
and desires and ignorance
anyway
ah
the visitors or it an old saying about am
how we are about greed
ah we always eating something
we eat through our eyes
we eat rhinos read through our ears we eat through our mouth and we each have our feelings are touch
and i always needing something to eat
but ah we become too greedy her things and then it's hard to let go of what we're greedy tour and room filled up
ha and so we have no freedom and inhibits or freedom
but we think that freedom is to collect all those things
that's our addiction

oh
am
so ah
because we have over feelers out
which i like hooks we get cut we catch things
and then we crave them is a basic buddhism
and then were caught by by think and we can't let go until we try to let go we don't realize how hooked we are
hum
so when do we hoped we hold grudges
oh we catch a cold
ah

you know we've created as the culture
poisons that will never go away
an atomic waste but will ever go away we can't do anything we have shifted around from place to place
ah
so we get caught by our ideas of trying to do too much
to create atomic energy because it's am
ah
the fake news about atomic energy is that
it's not a poisonous it's not it it's safe which is the most unsafe
am
ah
the material there is
so

but we're addicted to power
we're addicted to electricity i know this seems a little bit over the top
but i think we have to look at that
progress
we think their progress is inventing more and more fortunately using the sun and ah and the wind is you know
we should really be am
ah
promoting that more and more
it's the only thing that will save the earth actually i'm kind of wandering but you know i think you understand what i mean
so he says our culture
is based on the idea of gaining are accumulating something
ah science for instances the accumulation of knowledge i don't know that a modern scientist is greater than a scientist in the sixteenth century the differences that we have accumulated our scientific knowledge that is a good point and at the same time dangerous were in danger of being
buried under all of our accumulated knowledge it's like trying to survive without going to the restroom
we are already swimming upon the polluted water and air and we talk about the pollution and at the same time we can hardly survive the pollution of our knowledge
so each one of us knows how to go to the restroom without attaching to something we have in our bodies
whether we realize that we already have everything until we realize we looked at we already have everything we will not be attached to anything
actually we have everything even without going to the moon we have it when we tried to go to the moon it means that we think the moon is something outside of ourselves
that's partly true not completely
so our mind as buddha told us as well with everything within our mind everything exists if we understand things in that way than we will understand our activity to study something is to appreciate something and to appreciate seventy is to be none attached from things
when we become not attached term things everything will be ours
our practices to realize this kind of big mind in other words to go beyond each being including ourselves and let self work as it works that doesn't practice will be practices and we actually clean up of various attachments
we do cleaner by various attachments and then move i got the door we reattach
so crested is
how do we live our lives without attachment an addiction
outside the zendo
that's where most of our life takes place
coming back to zero is what our practices
people she will how do i practice outside of the zendo
but coming back to zero or over again when you sit says in
your mind wanders
and then you really oh my mind is wandering then you the i hope you suggest my bike
and then let go and come back to does them and let your mind wanders the older than you come back he simply let go you don't fight you don't try to change anything away he just say oh that's right sutter oh yeah zaza you don't blame her mind for thinking
the
does not blame
simply oh yeah back on track get on track get on track i track that's how we practice in the world stay on track stay on track don't get caught civic years his favorite most most wonderful statement
don't get caught by anything that's he's done per addiction is talking about attachment is not talking so much about
habit because we need habits right even attachment can be good attachment
when we realize how to find our freedom within attachment
it's no longer called attachment
protection addiction is what you can't help yourself

okay i have a wallet
to add my wallet
hm together something had happened that use my wallet
i need myself what it's not stolen i resolved it is not stolen and it's not somebody else's house so i don't need to find my wallet
i believe my lot of and film the time it and so is like the moon i don't need a move and go in possessed the moon i can just say okay the moon is there enough
have you need the money will be there for me i saw the idea of getting back on track okay i like i want to get back to my wallet i get back possessing everything including the moon i don't want to get back to sides
ten zero
i'll be addicted to his eyes and zero and other times when we need our wallet be there when the moon or some thought how we do not
well i hope you're addicted to zero
a
how can get up addicted to zero
because like the test
come through me and moments let them go when i go to pattern i can say
gershon i could say i'm holding something and then i
the recognize zero and i recognize you know the reason at all things but this is not always like i'm gonna go is a gonna stop being anywhere i am now in order to get to zero know because you're zero know better what you're doing
it's not zero is not a different place
not perception
zero is simply the reality of one two three four five six seven eight nine ten
is the basis of one two three four five six seven if he can have been to fencing seventy nine have without zero
do you come back to the foundation of your life
instead of getting lost in the details
the details are fine of course we live in the details but we don't lose sight of the bigger reality
that might well have any place but my bucket and
i always went hit people over the head when they leave the world on the bus ticket that my wall and put on the bus beside me and on and i walk out the door come on
are they put it in their purse
anyway
i don't go into more about that
the idea
oh yeah

to who
i'm addicted yeah i'm kind of addicted to ages this year but i'm i'm i'm in for a big surprise

yeah we have to let it go but the problem is you know just keep trying until you can't try anymore
so ah
it's easy to use it well you know i'll just sit back and that's okay
i'm doing that in a certain way but slowly so
ha
at an added order to discuss that either because i don't know what i'm doing
the
than others
that does it to earn a are harmful to others if but
well you know we usually think of addiction is as a doubt been drinking some like that but our addiction to sex addition to an addiction to a money a addiction to
ha
wanting people to think where good
addiction to wanting people to think we're bad
the any salmon is the normal stuff of life are addicted to
ah predicted the coffee
no everything just to sugar where mean
am addicted psychically to think you know like wanting the admiration and
a
i'm addicted to do talking too much or not talking enough or yeah
oh i didn't say that i said many us
yeah but
well there is a way that is harming other people added about you know no coffee is in it used to be out
i used to be like copies nigga for you at now it's copies good for you know
but it lets it's it's whatever is that makes you sick
effects everybody around you because they have to take carry you at some point
oh you're giving them a problem because you have a problem because we so connected that everything that we do that is harmful effects everybody not just ourselves because we think will i'm just this person you know that with his shape and so forth
but it
the thing about the moment is you know it in japan
ah they used to teach children the moon is that you are the moon you are one with the moon instead of the moon is out there and we're gonna go record you know phoebe land on it
it does does a few different ways of dealing with the moon and you
so
you know the moon's big rock just like this the earth but it's fun to go there and you know lot of ah
i'm
effort to come to her
lot of smoke and them
i'm betty way
yeah paragraph affected by whatever everybody does so you can see that clearly when you have a saga that lives together everybody's
ah but ever at any one person does is effects everybody else have you ever go to molest have a monastic life you realize that everything everybody does has an effect on everybody else
ah whether m
overt or covert

zero yes
police officer
yes a good point
so the bodhisattva ceremony
is a purification ceremony
in that
ah
i'm the first thing is to acknowledge our ancient tangled karma
i'm so
that's a of can confession but it is not a so much of a personal conviction perfect n
confession
as it is a m
this is is not like i did this and i did that and so forth it's just that we just
eh
but since we can't possibly it m come up with everything that we did as a transgression that stuff we don't even know about right we were transgressing our time so to speak so we just like know it all my ancient tangled come and free ourselves at that moment then we re-establish
practice
which is paying homage to other ancestors and then taking that i am precepts at the end
such as that's that's the basic basis own the bodyshop a ceremony it's the short version
of the posada ceremony the a confession
an
ah that was done in a historical buddhism
huh

here
our
yeah well then now it now we have addiction to female power

alternate
sunday's better never sent a schedule we do that

our
well look this community we may have those issues or may not with we took to say that man while and men women that very mechanical
but that's what you said so we do have a the women give talks our time
i don't know what you're talking about it

do

let me tell you something we've been dealing with a problem for fifty years
if not the first time that so that's where we have
really nice saga where men and women are equal

yeah well anyway your vision is different than the rest of us
sometimes we see that sometimes we see more women sometimes we don't count we don't count their ah
oh yes they are
there one
there were two here this morning
that
yeah
if matter of fact there's a women's saga that were thinking about
i'm using agenda at certain times
a black women saga
that is nice etc was great but it's really nice
i didn't
subject time
when we were staying the precepts
generally when we hear about the precepts is a big precepts
yeah major presents no
a ban a
bunch of network rambo like major priest outside
from his house ankle and things like that kanye and it was very
it was really great and here that is paying think that is more and you mentioned a couple of things that are produced from when we thought about addictions generalists sex for a practical hobby like that what're you know what are some of the small sort of
behaviors we seem to be addicted to it you see when we thought to you and witness stand not aware of like
right mostly hit the minor piece of a mostly about
a coping or ego
that's a lot less than most of the minor preceptor about curbing our ego
the most men by desert all the precepts are about
hum is a kirby are self centeredness that sustain that sounds like with our additions a lot of
of course addictions and ego at same thing coming to definitely related
i think our culture isn't difficult to be young
i've been saying i love this team i volunteer to be over
about that
we offer your lead

searching and haven is that really voluntary
yes yup list not everybody's going to the gym
okay
a to be alone
that that's kind of a bridge because it seems to me work we're in a gym right right now
is
my question is
did you say something about the role of sanga in terms of working with addictions the bed i can't see why we practiced in sanga in terms of working with addictions that i might not be aware
well ah
a
i didn't know what you know arab i mean at i'm not sure what you exactly mean
what would you propose worldly i
well like this morning i'm sitting in this see i thought the two people who are sitting there hadn't been served
cause i i didn't see that they have been served and so the tokyo
who was sitting in the cp garrison now had a different vantage point and was able to say oh they've already been served so i wouldn't call that an addiction per se but it could turn into an addiction if i got obsessed about that
or
let me say something
there's a culture
how do we do things and we don't always say you shouldn't do this you shouldn't do that you have the opportunity to find out for yourself through the through the the
ah a by absorbing the culture that we have so we don't talk so much about to to to have suffered we let it mostly we let people find what it is it's a problem
and but sometimes we have to say something yes that's true if it becomes too annoying
but basically we let people find their way and it is soon as he said
you can become addicted to correction yes
and that's what you're talking about so has don't become addicted to correcting
sometimes we just let things go and let people pick up on it
so the nature of the practice is partly big bite
patience
patience patience patience
and you absorb the practice through your pores through practicing
and then he is he began to get it
linda
hey
i appreciate
the way you find position prison
a something
i'm really help to the gym
that is a producer were together
time
i also appreciated
yes
insisting are bringing to our attentions sometimes were even if it's annoying way sometimes and britain to our attention
the notion of quality
dominant demographics and so on
and he said without me very mechanical to well
every other one male female know my first offers armed services extremely chemical are we serving meals is buried the chemical so would could be an experiment could be interested
when starting twenty percent of the people of code fifty percent of our speakers this room and chemical that will be an interesting experiment
and finally i just want to say didn't know what you're working today and i some
as miraculous
i grew want to make my t-shirt that says on the front and back

where'd that
where'd that come from
neville
the i was doing years ago and i thought it
but
anymore today that's so that you know
yes
let's have it were
ah
intuition
anyway i don't want to argue with you about alternation we've been through all that it's because we feel comfortable with ourselves i think we feel comfortable with ourselves there may be problems peak in a committee men are too many women and
but i think we feel comfortable enough with ourselves that we give everybody an opportunity that we can according to circumstances is also play a part
big part in how you make think how you are order or had at how you create a homogenous i'm saga
wait a minute
it really i really like watching the back
after he said
time
okay
vail
ah but logic
yeah will this do that then
the
okay with you
thank you
yeah hurt you
me it's the way we treat women who treats women whose we diminishing of women screwed i feel it when i when i've been here and i wanted i plotted out with feeling stronger in the way the structure is that
that's like you
back away from here is because i fear i don't want to i don't want to invite that culture of where i am as a woman diminish i see i understand
i do understand what you say
thank you
well there's i don't know she's lying about this
maybe should find up
there's a violence still get how to treat people washing machine or any of these women giving as many talks with any that they are equally an even better job my teachers okay i agree with you
you very much with them